U.S.-listed shares of Chinese firms fell on Friday, a day after President Donald Trump unveiled bans on U.S. transactions with the China-based owners of messaging app WeChat and video-sharing app TikTok, escalating tensions between the two countries.
The executive orders will be effective in 45 days and come after the Trump administration said this week it was stepping up efforts to purge"untrusted" Chinese apps from U.S. digital networks.Tencent Holdings Ltd owns the popular WeChat app, while ByteDance is the owner of TikTok. " some very specific companies and policies mentioned and that appears to be a proverbial line in the sand," said Eric Freedman, chief investment officer at U.S. Bank Wealth Management in Minneapolis.
"Clearly, this is a major step up of tensions between the U.S. and China which started with Huawei a few years ago and has now engulfed consumer apps," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said.